Cobham Antenna Systems has been awarded a contract from Embraer S.A. to design and manufacture nose radomes for the KC-390 military transport aircraft being developed for the Brazilian Air Force.

“We look forward to building upon the relationship between Embraer S.A. and Cobham, first established on the AMX Fighter programme,” said Fred Cahill, vice president of Cobham Antenna Systems. “We expect to perform preliminary and detailed design activities this year, with manufacturing of prototypes and qualification during 2013 in readiness for first flight of the prototype in March 2014.”

Cobham manufactures a wide range of radomes to the most exacting tolerances to meet diverse requirements such as aerodynamic loads, bird-strike, hail, lightning strike, low Radar Cross Section (RCS), installed radar / antenna performance through to ballistic protection. Cobham radomes are used by airborne, naval and land-based platforms covering the military and civilian markets. Major programmes using Cobham radomes include the full radome suite for the Eurofighter Typhoon, the nose radome for the Korean TA-FA-50 lead in fighter / trainer, the main surveillance radar radome for the NFH-90 helicopter, through to Satcom radomes to high speed trains.